River Ryan, Gavin Stone impress at Dodgers spring training

PHOENIX –– River Ryan made his reintroduction at Fanfest last month, showing up 30 pounds bigger than when Dodgers fans last saw him as a highly touted rookie pitcher in 2024, back before his promising debut season was cut short by Tommy John surgery.

On Saturday at Camelback Ranch, it was Gavin Stone’s turn to do the same, showing off the similarly impressive physical transformation he has made over the last two years, after his own breakout rookie campaign in 2024 was ended by shoulder surgery.

“It’s been a long rehab process,” said Stone, the once-slender right-hander who, like Ryan, added bulk to his frame during his time out injured, arriving at camp this year up roughly 15 pounds from his debut season. 

“There’s (been) a lot of bad days,” he added of his recovery, “but some good days, (too).”

Saturday was one of those good days for Stone. Coming off a relatively normal offseason, he was already facing hitters in a live batting practice session. And though his one inning of work represented the smallest of sample sizes, it excited Dodgers brass nonetheless –– highlighted by a strikeout of Shohei Ohtani in one of his at-bats, and strong execution of his fastball/changeup-heavy arsenal overall.

“Really good fastball quality, the arm’s good, the changeup was encouraging, and velocity was great,” general manager Brandon Gomes said. “That was a really nice (outing) for Stoney.”

The first, the Dodgers hope, of many more this year.

Though the team is only a few days into official spring workouts, Stone and Ryan are already the two young pitchers turning the most heads early. 

In 2024, each flashed tantalizing potential, with Stone posting an 11-5 record and a 3.53 ERA over 23 starts, and Ryan dazzling with a 1.33 ERA in a four-outing tease. Now, the two 27-year-olds are trying to make up for lost time, entering 2026 with full health and visibly improved strength.

“Those guys,” Gomes said, “look great.”

Ryan’s physical gains have enthused people around the club all offseason. 

Two years ago, the former two-way player (whom the Dodgers acquired in a trade for the DFA’d Matt Beaty in 2022) made his MLB debut at around 195 pounds and averaged only 96 mph with his fastball.

But then, over a five-month period near the end of his rehab last year, Ryan followed a simple plan to get up to 225 –– ”I just ate a lot of calories, and I lifted like an animal,” he joked –– and suddenly found himself routinely clipping the upper-90s and 100 mph marks, adding newfound velocity to his deep seven-pitch mix.

“I’ve always been able to throw pretty hard,” he said. “But I think for me right now, I’m able to throw a lot harder, a lot easier.”

Added Gomes: “He’s a house right now. Ball’s coming out really well … River put in a lot of hard work. Glad to see it pay off.”

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Stone, on the other hand, came into camp facing more questions.

After leading the Dodgers in innings pitched in 2024, and ending August that season in line to be a frontline member of their postseason rotation, the former fifth-round draft pick went down with a stunningly severe shoulder injury, requiring surgery on his labrum, capsule and rotator cuff.

“If you would’ve seen the MRI, it was horrible,” Stone said. “And I never felt any pain when I was pitching. It was always after, it would be really sore, hurt me late at night, early in the mornings … So the severity of it was way worse (than I thought).”

As a result, Stone now feels like he’s throwing with “basically a whole new shoulder,” he said, subjecting him to a recovery process that has taken “a little longer than I would like.”

“It’s still gonna be a long process, fine-tuning some things, getting the timing down,” he said, while revealing that he had a setback last summer after feeling arm pain following about 10 bullpen sessions. “Shut it down for a little while (after that). Played light catch during the postseason, just to keep that elasticity in the tissue and stuff. But then took some time this offseason, took a couple weeks off, and ever since then, have been feeling great.”

The Dodgers will be cautious with both pitchers this year, planning to manage their workloads and limit their innings after so much time missed.

But for now, they are the two leading candidates to serve as big-league replacements if (and almost certainly when) the Dodgers suffer any rotation losses –– already emerging as two early bright spots in the opening days of this spring’s camp.